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Programme note

Issues of time and indeed place are addressed in yet more elusive ways in the music of Simaku. His style is often described as a polyphony of evocations, where ancient and modern aspects of utterance, musical or otherwise, interconnect and complement each other. The imaginary folk resonances that are apparent in his song 'Need for Speech' may not necessarily invoke a particular place, but his radiant take on lyricism and dramatic modernist language push the boundaries of his song's stylistic context beyond Britain's shores. The text articulates how the urge to express oneself in writing comes from suffering and that the experience and memory of life is intensified through the writing process. Simaku's treatment of vocal colour and piano sonority vividly conveys this idea of experiential expansion and intensification, and the music brings a universal resonance to the text. (Lee Tsang, 2010)